Dyspraxia and secondary school

[madhairday]

DD has dyspraxia/DCD and started high school yesterday. I'm trying to collect some ways of helping her and wondered if anyone had any ideas or experience. I'm concerned in particular about organisation, PE, handwriting and friendships

She did really well yesterday but managed to miss the bus home, saying she went to get her bag out of her locker and it had gone. It's this kind of thing which could become a regular occurence, and me not being there to organise her - well, I worry. I know it's good for her to develop her own organisational skills.

I'm concerned that in a high school situation teachers just won't know about her dyspraxia and will not treat her accordingly. After a supply teacher in Y6 laughed at her during a lesson and told her she 'should be able to catch balls by now' I'm concerned that this could easily happen. Her OT has sent a full report, and I'm sure the SENCo will tell the teachers, but they have so many to teach - what can dd do, short of saying 'I have dyspraxia, so may struggle a bit more with that?' In primary school it all seemed simpler.

Would be grateful to hear of any strategies, experience or ideas any of you may have. We already scanned in her timetable and printed it out large to keep at home, so we can help her organise herself every day.

Have you spoken to the SENCo? At DCs school and several others around here they have a system of tags on the planner which indicate students who need specific help (my eldest have both had ones for having their homework written in for them, others have them as young careers and so on). I would also get to know the head of year, and encourage your DD to go and see them if there are issues.
With mine I tended to give them a coup,e of weeks to try to organise themselves before helping/giving advice on how to cope.
The best thing is to have supportive friends, and at least at senior school they are not stuck with one unsympathetic teacher all day.
If there are issues with a specific teacher it is worth talking to the SENCo, and she may be able to go and talk to that department.

But also try and relax to start with, my DS had one teacher make some rude remarks about his work in RE when he was covering the class. However when my son had that teacher for Geography for two years he was great, and whilst still requiring a high standard of presentation he really helped my DS (provided him a special pen just to be used in that class etc.).

I agree with the ideas above.
Also think about how you can get as much as possible of her day on paper.
You may find a ring binder with the timetable helps but subsections for each days requirements e.g. Is Wed ARt day..is it theory or practical? What books, supplies for each part of the day, clothing, after school stuff.
Then perhaps a pocket size notebook with similar layouts.

I agree with wanting to help here develop her own organisational skills but if you model them, and get her to work through it with you, she will learn.

you must speak to the senco team.
we had problems at first as the junior school should have sent a file ? up with him but they didnt get info on him at all so he wasnt on their books .
just explain what he finds difficult ect ,but be prepared for the message not to get through to all the teachers.
for example ,ds cant tie anything, and hes now nearly 14
he used to get stressed when he had cooking ,found out it was because he could nt tie his apron and the teacher had called him a baby in front of everyone so he used to wrap it around hoping she wouldnt see
i contacted the senco team who hadnt informed that teacher yet because they do 4 subjects within home economics on a rotation, anyway the class got a helper who helped everyone (including making sure my dc had his apron tied)
you usually find if theyre informed it will be ok.

Awful about that teacher, wfrances :(

Thanks for the ideas - some good ones to get started. I have actually had a good conversation with the SENCO this afternoon on the phone and she's been very supportive. She said they are fully aware of dd's difficulties, have the OT report and she is on the SEN register etc, the SENCO has made a concise list from the OT report for all the teachers who will be having dd with her main problems and suggestions for help - more time for processing, gross and fine motor skills etc, needing to fiddle. I'm very heartened by this talk with the SENCo and feel they have it all under control. She is going to talk to dd tomorrow to see how she is doing and show her around the SN unit they have there which dd is welcome to go to at any time for some help/support. Breathing a sigh of relief here...and she managed to get the bus home today! (She'd not managed to pick up the bus pass, because she couldn't find the office)

Have any of you found that high schools have good systems in place for support in exams (thinking ahead here) etc? DD doesn't perform too well in written tests due to not being able to process and get it down in writing in the time, and would do better with longer time and a laptop etc (when she learns to type!!) Just wondered what dyspraxia provision is like generally - I know dyslexia provision has improved a lot.

My DCs have always had extra time. DS was allowed to repeat a test in year 7 as he'd done surprisingly badly, and the extra time made a real difference. He has also had the option to use a computer for exams, he could have chosen to have a scribe instead if he'd wanted.
Do see if you can have an IEP set up, my DS's was reviewed with him termly, and this did help.